In the past, the motion picture industry has employed sound track recording on a 0.1 inch wide strip of the 35 mm film carrying visual images. Sound is usually recorded on film by means of varying the exposure to light corresponding to sound vibrations. Synchronization of sound with pictures allows video images to be accompanied by analog data regarding the images.
Identification cards have used magnetic data strips in conjuction with photographic prints of the card owner. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,360,728, Drexler discloses a bank card for automatic teller machines bearing both a strip of magnetic recording material and a direct-read-after-write reflective laser recording material. The card may be provided with other identification means, e.g., a photograph of the card user.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,332, Domo discloses a medical record card containing a microfilm portion having some data visible to the eye and other data visible by magnification. The directly visible data pertains to emergency medical conditions of the patient and the magnifiable data portions detail the medical history.
A mass data storage disc for images and data is described in Electronics, Oct. 20, 1982, p. 47. A plastic disc is stamped out from a glass master on which microminiature copies of catalog pages and interspersed bar code digital data are recorded on photoresist in concentric rings. The microphotograph on the disc is apparently read by optically scanning the rings, forming a serial data stream, until the image is re-created, line by line. The image is then magnified and displayed on a screen.
In the field of archival data storage, it is frequently necessary to store audio-visual information. Adding digital information by means of a small laser recorder could be of considerable value for stored microfiche, microfilm, 35 mm slides, motion picture film, microscope photographs, X-ray pictures and CAT-scan pictures. Such add-on records have a potential of getting separated from the recorded film during storage in medical archives. Even if not separated, the differences in archival storage properties, say between film and paper, pose storage problems.
An object of the invention is to provide a means of recording directly on a film slide, strip, or microfiche, both a visual display and data to accompany that image either prior to, during, or after exposure forming such image.